Today, in many corporations, IT (information technology) defines the capability of IT strategic planning as a process of translating company priorities, in conjunction with business partner objectives, to build value-focused technology offerings that are aligned with business services. This broad IT strategy can serve as a foundation for designing sound IT products and services.
Most often, IT business strategy is business-driven, based upon a defined set of inputs and drivers. It describes how technology will support an organization's business goals and strategies. One principal purpose is to create understanding, to promote interaction, and ultimately to receive IT governance approval. Approval of capability and function strategies empowers the organizational leaders (e.g., Accountable Capability Leaders (ACLs) and Function Leaders) to execute on their strategies.
For example, the ACLs are usually accountable for the a large number of core capabilities of IT and work with other responsible leaders to ensure there are single processes, consolidated policies/standards, benchmarking measures and a strategic plan in place. ACLs span across the IT organization. The Function Leaders are leaders within Technology Services and organizationally accountable for the core functions of Tech Services.
IT strategic planning is a core capability of an organization's IT Operating Model (ITOM). Strategy Development is a core step included in the ITOM lifecycle for capability improvement. Unfortunately, conventional approaches to IT strategic planning are manually intensive which leads to inefficiency and large expense. Additionally, because traditional IT strategic planning approaches require human input and facilitation, they are also prone to human error, procrastination and mistake which increase inefficiency and expense.